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The Board of Supervisors must still approve the project. A hearing will be held October 14, with the full board taking up the measure October 19.

An earlier, larger version of Mission Bay received city approval in 1991. But the development was stalled until last year, when University of California at San Franciscopledged to build a new campus on the site and Mayor Willie Brown threw his weight behind the project.

"The plan is a better plan today," Catellus Chief Executive Officer Nelson Rising told the city commissioners. "(A) compromise here, compromise there, and we end up with a strong plan."

Catellus' agreements with the Bay Area Organizing Committee, which promotes affordable housing and social services, and a coalition of environmental groups call for the company to improve habitats for Mission Creek wildlife, build storm-drain systems that would separate rain and wastewater and improve treatment for wastewater before it is released into the bay.

"Negotiations with Catellus have led to some strong improvements relating to Mission Creek wetlands and dramatically reducing sewage overflows," said Jeff Marmer of the environmental coalition, the Alliance for a Clean Waterfront. But Marmer said environmentalists still have concerns about the project.

Catellus also pledged to set aside for sale, rather than rental, some of the 255 housing units it will build for low- and moderate- income families. The city would have to approve the deal.

"We see this as a positive step," said Buck Bagot of the Bay Area Organizing Committee. "(But) we don't think negotiations are over."

Bagot's group wants 1,000 affordable-housing units at Mission Bay to be offered for sale, not rent. A total of 1,700 below-market units are to be built at the development, with Catellus hoping that the city and nonprofit developers will construct 1,445 of them.